The slow build of a fast network

According to some recent polling, the National Broadband Network maintains the support of the majority of Australians. Yet in regional Australia patience is starting to wear thin.

In September, Newspoll conducted a survey which revealed that 9 out of 10 adult Australians were aware of the NBN but few understood critical issues like cost and implementation.

Last month Essential Report found that 69 per cent of Australians support the NBN.

Perhaps many people like me are inclined almost sentimentally to endorse major nation building projects. With few exceptions, Australian governments since Federation have failed to engage in major infrastructure development or when they have, the results have been costly and completion of the projects absurdly late.

The worst example is the Adelaide to Darwin rail link. The first sod was turned on that project in 1878. A century later the rail line extended only from Adelaide to Alice Springs. Twenty four more years later, the first passenger service from Adelaide rolled into Darwin. By then the commercial viability of the link had dwindled. By the time it was finished, it was a hundred-year-old idea.

Our two major cities, Sydney and Melbourne are still not connected by a dedicated dual carriageway although the date of that transport infrastructure miracle is looming. In this instance it will be merely fifty years late.

So when the Rudd Government announced the NBN, I became a fervent supporter of it because I believed it would deliver Australia’s infrastructure requirements in data transfer at the time it was needed.

Here, at last, I thought was a nation building project that would be built in a timely fashion. I regarded the cost of construction with a carefree wave of the hand. I babbled about the network’s capacity to develop regional Australia and ultimately take the pressure off our cities swollen with people forced to endure infrastructure bottlenecks of their own. Anyone who has driven on Sydney’s roads during peak hours will know exactly what I mean.

It might be difficult for people who live in cities to understand how dismal internet services have been to those of us who live in regional Australia. Interruptions are commonplace. Sometimes my entire town has been down for 24 hours or more. Small businesses have been unable to complete EFTPOS and other financial transactions. When the net is up and running, upload and download speeds remain slow.

I regarded the NBN as an imperfect solution to these woes. Bring it on, I thought eyeing NBN Co’s map which indicated that my home would be one of the 317,000 homes hooked up the network by now. Yet, more than three years after the NBN was announced, I am still waiting for connection.

In my neck of the woods; a speck on the map in regional Australia, I was told that the NBN would be available in April this year. Then we were told it would be April 2013. Apparently, there are problems with construction; jurisdictional arguments of one type or another. A quick glance at the NBN map reveals that this revised target date for connection remains stuck in the ether.

Clearly, my part of regional Australia is not alone in having to wait. As of June 30, less than 39,000 homes have access to the network, a third of one per cent of the target figure of 12.2 million homes by 2020.

Meanwhile NBN Co. has received almost $3 billion in taxpayer money and has earned less than two million from the provision of its internet and phone services. Meanwhile the minister responsible for the NBN, Senator Stephen Conroy continues to revise expectations down.

For many of us, the NBN is an idea in the nebula. A good idea it might have been but one cannot hook one’s home or business up to an idea.

As my impatience grows, so does the emerging sense of déjà vu that the NBN will become another part of the desultory history of nation building projects in Australia.

Your Comments

It’s sad to see them when the stars in their eyes fade and reality sets in. Join me in cynicism my friend and save yourself from another dose of the trauma that reality brings to optimists!

Not taking the piss Jack--you acknowledge yourself you got carried away with your enthusiasm. What was that film’s name? Oh yeah, Reality Bites.

MiltonTue 04 Dec 12 (11:37am)

About 30 years ago i saw papers relating to a very fast train between Melbourne and Brisbane. From your articles examples it seems to be on track.
And with Conroy at the helm expect the worst and you wont be disappointed.

Doktor BranestawmTue 04 Dec 12 (11:38am)

Living in suburban Sydney, I have had fibre-optic access to the net for years (using the Foxtel system). I have never had any access problems and the speed is more than sufficient for my home needs. Thererfore, I cannot understand exactly what I stand to gain from the NBN, even though I am (as a taxpayer) being forced to pay for it.

I acknowledge that those in regional areas may be in a completely different situation. However, why should I have to effectively have to subsidise those in the regional and rural areas? After all, do they subsidise the vastly higher cost of housing in the metropolitan areas? If you live in a regional area why should you expect subsidised network access when those in the cities do not expect housing subsidies from you?

If adults choose to live in remote areas then you accept that some things are better (cheap housing, less stress, negligable commuting times, cleaner air etc.), and some things are worse (dearer fuel, less amenities, and dearer communications). You can’t have it both ways.

TracyTue 04 Dec 12 (11:50am)

Reality hit home for this city dweller when my mum got an iPad for her birthday. We said we’d sort out the modem and as my parents live at Beresfield thought we’d picked the right little beastie for the job.
We then found out there is no mobile coverage in my parents house although the write up confirmed coverage in that area and even plugging it through the landline was problematic. Ended up having to sort out ADSL for them, it works but is slow.
One thing that’s always amused me where we live and this is only 20 mins from the CBD, no tv coverage unless your arial is
on a dirty great pole, we were truly grateful when cable tv happened.

Jack the InsiderTue 04 Dec 12 (12:53pm)

One thing that worries me, Tracy is what will happen to regional Australia if the next government knocks the NBN on the head?

Heather VTue 04 Dec 12 (11:54am)

I’m afraid I always thought that with the speed of new technology, the system might be superseded before it was finished. I’m now sure that will be the case.

NBN InsiderTue 04 Dec 12 (12:00pm)

I’m working on an NBN-related project for a large telecommunications company that shall remain un-named, so let’s call it T.

I’m seeing first-hand how badly behind schedule the NBN rollout is going. T is continually revising its expected connections downwards, resulting in NBN-related projects being deferred further and further into the future.

In the meantime, $80 a month on the NBN gets you 5 GB of data at 12 Mbps network speed. For the same price, I’m already getting 120 GB of data at 20 Mbps network speed. So if you already have cable or ADSL2, you will be spending the same amount of money for less data at a slower speed when the NBN disconnects your existing service.

Also in the meantime, T’s 4G wireless network is running at 40+ Mbps network speed, so guess where T is going to invest some of the $11 billion it’s getting from you and me (via Stephen Conroy) and compete against the NBN.

Smirking LiberalTue 04 Dec 12 (12:00pm)

Hate to say I told you so…

Damien WalkerTue 04 Dec 12 (12:04pm)

I’m pleased the NBN is coming, despite the long wait. I’ll be a grateful data hungry user as soon as it reaches my corner of the bush.

I have to say, however, as a nation building project I’m not convinced by the hyperbole. Occasional outages and unreliable speed are problems for business users whose enterprise relies on super-fast always-on networks. That must surely be a tiny fraction of regional businesses, now and in the foreseeable future.

The benefits for telemedicine, for example, are obvious as the network will enable clinicians to work in ways they currently can’t. For that type of industry it’s a game changer. But regular business is actually pretty well served by what we currently have and I’m not convinced super fast data will have a material impact on building our regional capability, it’ll just make the ‘net more fun for those who can afford it.

SimonTTue 04 Dec 12 (12:11pm)

Jack the linkl on the top right of the Oz is wrong instead of taking readers to your latest column it takes them to your October column on the mysogyny speech.

Jack the InsiderTue 04 Dec 12 (12:51pm)

I’m away from the office but I’ll get it sorted, Simon.

jackTue 04 Dec 12 (12:16pm)

M .Turnbull said on Q&A;"Vision without implementation is a hallucination”. Another ALP failure to implement anything. Yesterday we had an anniversary of first ever TXT msg being sent. Nobody has even dreamt about smart phones then. How can we predict what will happen in 20 years? It seems crazy to spend 50 $ billion slowly building something that might be white elephant when finished.

LawrenceTue 04 Dec 12 (12:22pm)

If you consider the logistics, it was never going to happen. Try to imagine how long it would take to lay cable to every street, home and business in Australia. Another labor idea, not well thought through, but costing billions. They were elected on an education revolution as one of their main projects. What have we seen? A few laptop computers in classrooms and not a lot more.

SimonTTue 04 Dec 12 (12:26pm)

Jack: my favourite topic the disappointments of the NBN. I have had a bit of experience dealing with NBNCo on 2 largish development projects and possibly that has affected my views (other than foreseeing the cost and time overruns which were obvious to and predicted by anyone who has been involved in large projects). It is a pure bureaucracy and totally uncommercial. On projects of over 100 dwellings you have to deal with NBNCo – they amended the TPA so NBNCo could do a deal with Telstra where they divide the market – Telstra bids to do the telco infrastructure on projects of under 100 dwellings and NBNCo on those over. If that is not bad enough the NBNCo contract initially was you have to deal with us but we won’t guarantee anything – quality, performance or most importantly timing. Try financing, selling, constructing and settling an apartment project when there is no guarantee of telecommunication services being available on completion. They have improved and whilst they still don’t commit to timing they will at least offer transparency on when the works are programmed. There is still a little problem of the fire services. Buildings over a certain size are required to have a special direct over ride line for the fire alarm that works without electricity. The NBN can’t do that. Apparently they are working on a solution. I hope they figure it out before any new buildings relying on the NBN are finished.
I also object in principle to the NBN project – you call it nation building i call it at best a massive misuse of funds (nation building is great but that is why we have the Productivity Commission to tell us what is a good use of funds and what isn’t) and at worst hugely expensive middle class welfare. If there is a case for the NBN it is in regional centres like yours. I can see that is nation building. But there is no obvious case for fibre to the door in the city paid for by government. That is just middle class welfare or good old fashioned pork barrelling.

DavidTue 04 Dec 12 (12:27pm)

Rome wasn’t built in a day. The NBN is not as simple as whacking down a bit of tar or railway track. But when it is complete it will future proof our Telecommunications and Internet.
The only thing to worry about is whether the Coalition wrecks it when they get into government next year. The fibre to the node plan has now been proven to be MORE expensive than fibre to the home so the Coalition may just give up on the idea of destroying all of Labor’s good work and let the NBN slip through if we’re lucky.

TSBTue 04 Dec 12 (12:30pm)

It’s disappointing that very, very few of us have seen any government-assisted improvement in broadband delivery in the five full years since it was a major feature of Mr Rudd’s election campaign. Very, very many of us still don’t even have a tentative year nominated when planning work might, all things going well, be started for our areas.

Angry DudeTue 04 Dec 12 (12:50pm)

How is it that project after project is over promised and under delivered (and that’s not even including Defence)? Must one multiply all costs and timelines by at least a factor of 2.5 to get real numbers? The NBN team has got all the money it needs, had a lot of time for planning, and is using existing proven technology. It’s meant to be comprised of talented workers; hey, they’ve got an average remuneration cost per head of $172,000. Management are even giving themselves bonuses.

Then we have Minister Conroy; the guy who claims he can make any telco supremo reverse-wedgy himself - well, at least put his undies on his head. Is he out there pushing to fix obvious problems? No, he merely chooses to redefine goals downwards and conflate numbers from different categories so as disguise poor progress. And then, then, he has the gall to reassure us that everything is going to plan!

Clearly, the project is too large and complex for the talents of the people involved. The costings and timelines too optimistic. Time to lower our expectations once again.

jackTue 04 Dec 12 (12:54pm)

jeez, a project cooked up on the run by Stephen Conroy and Kevin Rudd, and it hasn’t worked out real well, who could have foreseen that.

Mike HenshawTue 04 Dec 12 (12:54pm)

It’s one thing to rope this nation building project in with the likes of the Adelaide to Darwin rail link, or the dual carriageway between Sydney and Melbourne Jack, but neither of those projects cost Australian tax payers billions prior to a shot being fired. The NBN on the other hand, as you’ve stated, has cost upwards of 3 billion with next to nothing to show for it other than a few glitzy TV advertisements.

This started out as a 4.5 billion dollar FTTN project for the entire nation. Instead we have a 3 billion dollar fibre to 39,000 homes project. Maybe, just maybe, Malcolm and the coalition are dead right on this one.

Curmudgeon of High DudgeonTue 04 Dec 12 (12:55pm)

Just back from Vietnam where their internet speeds shit on ours. I am willing to wait.

JackSpratTue 04 Dec 12 (12:56pm)

Jack

This is just another example showing Canberra is very poor at organizing anything except spending money.
In the end it might stuff up more than just the NBN as they are to take over the whole network in due course.

the plumberTue 04 Dec 12 (01:05pm)

Name one Govern inspired infrastructure project that hasn’t blown the budget big time and this was my immediate concern. Also political over reach in nailing a major policy that defined the new Labor paradigm. Major road upgrades are prob the only projects that don’t go awry and that’s because the 3 companies vying for the projects are owned by the same parent company. Gouging comes to mind. These pollies gaily spruik the bountiful benefits against their flimsy estimates presented as fact like - snake oil salesmen. However it needs to be done in either form - Lib or Lab.
.
The other problem is similar to what happened to the School Halls implementation - it becomes a feeding frenzy and it impossible to mitigate these professional gougers.

The Bow-Legged SwantoonTue 04 Dec 12 (01:11pm)

Seriously, did anyone really expect anything different? This government has made an art of “over-promising and under-delivering”, to quote Mr Shorten. The Labor cheer squad got so carried away with the idea that slaying the Howard government dragon meant a coming Golden Age that the ALP could have promised eternal youth on Medicare and free holiday homes on the moon for the proletariat and the spear carriers would have bought it.

There’s a wide-eyed naivety about lefties that looks charming in teenagers and positively sinister in anyone over the age of twenty five. Like a shambling army of slobbering zombies who were so stupid they ate their own brains by mistake.

TylerTue 04 Dec 12 (01:15pm)

Jack, you disappoint me. Was it really so hard to forsee that the expenditure of $30 Billion, a decision made by Rudd and Conroy on a plane flight, on a rolled gold network that went well beyond the original Fibre to the Node proposal, might not be a sound investment? That perhaps the stubborn refusal to commission a cost benefit analysis was because the goverment knew it wouldn’t pass muster? I couldn’t borrow $300K from my bank without a business plan, yet our politicians can get away with spending 100,000 times that sum based on a back of the envelope calcuation. All unchecked by a largely uncritical media, who seem to suspend rational judgment every time a politician says “nation building”.

BASSMANTue 04 Dec 12 (01:18pm)

Last Blog:-thank all for the thoughtful words re my Mum. An innings of 88. If only our blokes could have got near that yesterday. She was a toughie...worked on the tanks in the 2nd world war. Dementia is terrible.
^
The NBN is a nation building project. It matches the Snowy River Scheme but is much more complex and bigger. People who expected it to be up and running in no time do not appreciate the technicality of the project. It will take years and years to be up and running. In the meantime, I can get faster internet speed when I go to the Philippines which is a disgrace considering it is one of the poorest countries in the work. As money spinner, in time, it will be a goldmine. Everybody and everyTHING will be hooked up to it. I can say this...$30billion spent in Afghanistan, Iraq and Hopward’s ‘War on Terror’ is lost dead money. At least we will get something for our money with the NBN.
^
Every time Turnbull debates Conroy as much as i dislike Conroy he destroys him. He did it the other nite on Lateline. I really felt sorry for poor old Malcolm. Abbott deliberately sold him that dump.
^
SPEED:- Sellers of internet packages are CUNNING. They talk in kilobits per seconds instead of kilobytes. One is 7 times faster than the other. People think they are getting a fast speed when they are not. They should only be al,lowed to speak in kilobytes and Meg. Dopey Rodent thinks because he sees 100meg in the right hand corner of his computer hew thinks he is getting 100mewg per second-he is not. Download a file and watch the speed. It is NOT 100meg a second! We e easily conned.
^
If we are to compete in the modern world the NBN is a MUST and I dnt care how long we have to wait for it...as long as we get it right.
^
In 11years what did Howard do for fast internet speeds-ZILCH! At least Labor is having a go. As usual, all of the hard yards left to labor and then Abbott will become PM and take the credit for something they were vehemently against from day 1. Just like Medicare and Superannuation for workers.

Jack the InsiderTue 04 Dec 12 (01:41pm)

Onya, Bassman. Take care.

AnnieTue 04 Dec 12 (01:22pm)

Us bushwhackers have not given up Jack, the majority always thought it a joke to start with. It might work ok in the towns for business’s or hospitals etc, but for those that work in a paddock, the trusty laptop 4G, sitting in the trusty rusty 4WD generally does the trick. There are not too many farmers who sit in the lounge room doing their work. Anyway like our place, our front gate is not like the suburban front gate. Our house is nearly 2 ks from the road. We don’t want it, we don’t need it, and we are not paying for it. (though we will thru the taxes) we will just keep updating our 4G both phone and laptop, it does the work, and does not tie us down to one spot.

DwightTue 04 Dec 12 (01:25pm)

“Like a shambling army of slobbering zombies who were so stupid they ate their own brains by mistake. “

Jack the Insider

Jack the Insider is a highly placed, dedicated servant of the nation with close ties to leading figures in politics, business and the union movement. Jack tends to be present at crucial moments in world history, ready to grapple with huge events and give them a gentle nudge. His real identity must remain unknown for obvious reasons. Jack's new book The Insider's Guide To Power In Australia is available from Random House.